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Left-Leaning Bloggers Flex Muscle in Texas
AUSTIN - Last year online activists inspired by DailyKos.com, the nation's most popular liberal blog, swelled with power as the Democratic presidential candidates debated at their annual convention, asking for their blessing and a little cash - or at least a link to their site.
And this year? In the words of Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos blog on which this Netroots Nation convention of political gate-crashers originally gathered: "We are the mainstream."
The progressive online movement is now faced with its most significant challenge: using its online power to help elect a Democratic president. Doing that will require many of the 2,000 bloggers and activists gathered here since Thursday to leave their laptops behind and perform one of the oldest of political duties: knock on the doors of potential voters - especially in red-state America - and persuade them to vote their way.
Expanding "online to offline" is a dominant theme among the netroots who have gathered for four days in Austin, a sweltering blue island inside red Texas - and the Barack Obama campaign, long a favorite, is leading the way. On Thursday, the campaign talked up its "Neighbor-to-Neighbor" contact program now in 20 states, which hopes to coax a majority of the 1 million ardent Obama supporters roosting on the candidate's Web site, www.barackobama .com, to phone, door-knock or otherwise contact those within walking distance of their homes about the strengths of the presumed Democratic nominee.
"It's not just about being online and saying, 'Wouldn't it be great if?' " said Chris Hughes, the 24-year-old co-founder of Facebook who now directs Obama's online organizing strategy.
The Obama campaign has won plaudits for its groundbreaking use of new media, from the 1 million supporters it has recruited through Facebook - the social networking site used by 80 million people - to the 12,000 grassroots groups (such as the clutch of Bay Area train commuters in "Baby Bullet Riders for Barack" ) that have formed on the candidate's Web site. While former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign is credited as the first to broadly use online tools, Dean's campaign manager Joe Trippi said Friday, "If the (Howard) Dean campaign was the Wright brothers, then Obama was Apollo 11."
Now comes the hard part. Labor Day is when Americans who've ignored the last 20 months of campaigning start to tune in. And the best technology to reach them at this point is still a handshake and a smile.
Hughes said the campaign knows that nothing is more effective than what Obama used to do on the South Side of Chicago: grassroots organizing. Visitors to the campaign site aren't just hit up for money when they register, they're connected to a variety of local events - currently, there are 173 Obama for President get-togethers being advertised on the site in the Bay Area. Bonding offline connects casual supporters with active ones, and so far the effect has been exponential in raising Obama's profile in the relatively short time he's been on the national stage, analysts said. 'Building a movement'
This summer, the campaign created the Obama Organizing Fellows, a program designed to train organizers for the general election and "the struggle it will take after Barack gets elected," Joy Cushman, who coordinates the program, said Saturday. More than 10,000 people applied for the volunteer program earlier this year; 3,600 were accepted for the 30 hour-a-week, six-week long volunteer training. It's an element of what Obama organizers talk regularly about - "building a movement" that would last beyond an Obama presidency.
"We knew that the Internet and Internet alone is not going to win elections. If our people on the Internet were not also organizing on the ground, we're not going to be effective," Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, a 22-year veteran of political campaigns, said Saturday. He urged the bloggers in Austin to talk about the 56 million unregistered voters in the United States, particularly people of color and youth, then get out and register them.
"It's not around Barack Obama," said Hildebrand. "It's about building a progressive movement in this country that has a future."
One result of such online-offline organizing: This week Obama's campaign said it raised $52 million in June - the second-highest monthly total in presidential history - with an average donation of $68, much of it coming online.
In a sign of the growing importance of online campaigning, this year the netroots had to share Austin's bars and restaurants with their conservative counterparts. While the Netroots Nation attendees were noshing downtown at a party thrown by GQ magazine and the Huffington Post on Friday, 500 conservatives were holding their first-ever gathering of online activists on the other side of town - the Right Online summit, sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, americansforprosperity.org.
The featured speaker Friday was a Washington figure not often associated with new media - 77-year-old conservative columnist and TV pundit Robert Novak. Conservatives may have dominated talk radio for three decades, but they're admittedly far behind online. Conference organizer Erik Telford said he had to change business cards that read "New Media Manager" because "people kept asking me, 'Are you the new media manager.' " Telford paused. "Yeah, it's pretty bad."
A Friday session called "New Media and the Conservative Movement" sounded like a digital 12-step program, with the participants admitting that they were behind the online curve and were ready for help. The few dozen in attendance - a mixture of digitally savvy Ron Paul libertarians, white-haired traditional conservatives and young Facebook devotees - debated how and why to adopt new online tools. One suggested holding your nose and checking out the Web site of the liberal MoveOn.org - just to see how it's organized.
"They (liberals) are developing community and we are really not doing that," said Emily Zanotti, online community manager for the Sam Adams Alliance (samadamsalliance.org), a conservative online outfit that focuses on government transparency.
'We're missing the boat'
"The right just doesn't get it and we're missing the boat," said Eric Odom, her colleague at Sam Adams.
Some believe conservatives are far behind in online organizing. "They're at least an election cycle behind," said Peter Leyden, a San Francisco Democratic strategist who has been on the leading edge of using new media in political campaigns.
Like many liberals, Leyden surveyed the wreckage of the 2004 defeat of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and realized that the progressives needed a bottom-up strategy divorced from Washington political consultants.
"Four years ago, it was pretty much the dark ages for progressives," Leyden said. "But the new tools showed that you don't need 1,500 staffers to contact 10,000 people. Technology makes it all scalable and much quicker."
Now, the conference has become a mandatory stop for liberals looking to rouse support from this hyper-engaged slice of the Internet. On Saturday, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and her surprise guest, former Vice President Al Gore, appeared to talk up Gore's proposal to wean the nation off of nonrenewable fuels.
"Thanks to all of the people who have made this remarkable movement possible," Gore said. Informing people about public affairs, Gore said, "is bringing a great new hope that we can reclaim the birthright of this nation."
© 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
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114 Comments so far
Show Alltailcap July 20th, 2008 9:45 pm
"I did answer you, maybe you didn't see it."
Maybe you didn't post it!
Why don't you just repost it or direct us all to it, so we can have a good look at THE PLAN?
ezeflyer--For your list of Repub shills characteristics, #20: If you question the Bush administration's 911 conspiracy theory, you are an imbecile, dangerous, fascist and racist. 911 really gets them wound up. I suspect they get double time for trying to knock this one down. They never have any facts that make sense--only insults.
Tailcap(9:45 pm), since you are one of them, what is wrong with choosing lesser evil?
I'm afraid all the door to door grassroots effort in the
world will not turn Texas blue. Believe me, I live here in
the Red-Neck area of East Texas and racism is alive and well
here. I've heard "he's a muslim you know", "he'll take our
guns away", and "I aint voting for that N*&&$r" more than a
few times. One of the local preachers didn't call Obama's name, but it was obvious who he was talking about when he
called him the anti-Christ. I hope I'm wrong and there aren't really as great a number of these people as I fear,
but from my observations it looks like an up hill battle.
It's hilarious to come here a read the posts about voting for the lesser evil of two status quo candidates.
key word is of course EVIL.
tailcap don't worry some people just don't want to be awaken from their utopian delusion that one wing or the other of this ONE partied beast is going to save their collective asses.
The system is broken and it was by no accident. The men that own both the Dims and Repugs have been very diligent in their work.
They would really like a one world government or New World Order if you will.
I can not support either EVIL.And will do all I can to defeat it.
I heard it put like this once .When the Mafia chooses a new
Don do the people take a stand one way or the other? No they just pay what ever "fees" are required to keep from getting their legs broken.
This is how we should look at government (no disrespect intended towards the Mafia their much more honorable than politcians)but when the government comes and says "give us your money" you might be well advised to do so or they may send men to imprison you and if you resist they will shoot you.
It seems to me that voting only encourages them .How come they never ask on the ballet :Would you like someone else to rule over you or can you make your own decisions?
If anything these so called "Civil Servants" are doing is so civil, how come they need a guns and thugs to enforce THEIR will on the people?
Carpe Libertatem
Well said, Rich M.
I have to say that I really don't consider myself a dim or a repug. I tend to vote based on the integrity, vision, and voting record of the candidate. That generally means a dim, but not always. I have also observed that candidates that have the blessing/backing of the party machines generally lack the qualities I require to give my vote.
I have been out on a lot of "conservative" sites that deal with financial markets mostly. These folks are also scared to death of McSame. Many were willing to hold their nose and vote for Obama. But many, just like the folks here on CD, are taking another look. They believe that Obama is moving toward the "status quo", not the center or the right. What they see is that the banksters have control of Obama as evidenced by the people (advisors) he is surrounding himself with. He is also moving away from his "anti war" stance. Many are throwing up their hands and are going to vote for Ron Paul.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Repugs have also ignored their fiscally conservative base, just like the Dims have stomped on their progressive base. It will be interesting to see if the "protest" vote of conscience on both sides cancel each other out and cause the outcome to be the same as it would have been if everybody stuck with voting out of fear and the lessor evil.
Well RichM, that was a lot of words that still forwards the same holier-than-thou, purist argument centered around "lesserevilism", with NO PLAN! I'm very much a realist when it comes to politics, and I don't allow myself to indulge in political fantasy, as you do. We have to live in the real world, not on the "ethereal plane".
Every choice you make in life, from buying a home, land, car, clothes, shoes, even food, is a lesser-evil choice. What makes this one any different, and WHERE IS THE PLAN AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR YOUR CHOICE? Show me how it's better, or STFU!!
WHERE IS THE PLAN AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR YOUR CHOICES?
here's a plan:
http://tolfa.us/
Why must we begin to move away from the two party system that controls the working class? Our economic system can not provide the human necessities needed for the population. Our society is crumbling, and another must be made anew. In whose interest will the new society be constructed? This is the essential problem of all historical "moments" of transition. All manner of forces emerge in the battle for resolution. History shows that the class that understands its independent interests, that has a vision of the desired outcome, and that organizes its forces to achieve the political means to enforce those interests in favor of that outcome creates the means to politically enforce its class interests.
I'm sorry workreno, but "The On-Line Freedom Academy", well, it just doesn't work for me as A PLAN! Not to mention the fact that the world can't wait until sometime in the 2020's for the scores of millions to be educated, especially under the Bush/McSame plan.
THEY DO HAVE A PLAN, YOU KNOW!!
In that case.Your free to continue your slavery .Have a delightful life under your next owner in January.
Did you know that men were thinking of ways of ending slavery in this country many decades before the Civil War?
Great achievements do not come about overnight.
I know that's difficult for the I want it now Wall-Mart shopper type to identify with ,but that's OK keep thinking happy thoughts about Obombya or McBombya and it will all be just fine.
Oh and don't forget to click your heals together. I heard that helps.
ezeflyer: It's funny, huh? There is NO difference lalalalala
what a moronic mantra.
Have these threaders lived through the last seven years? The worst in American History?
You could see Cheney with a remote control in his hand in the White House flying the planes into the twin towers.
And that was the starting bell. Torture. A wrecked economy. Three wars. While he thumbs his nose at Waxman and America.
Christ. I've never voted. Because they are all jack-asses. Or used to be. After Bush, I miss having a jack-ass in the Whit-House.
Obama '08.
As far as 'Nader' he can go to hell.
He is heavily invested in Fidelity, which in turn is very heavily invested in Raytheon=Cluster Bombs. Wal-mart. Dow. General Dynamics ad infinitum.
Ralph is a Walking Charlie Foxtrot. As children were burning from Dow Napalm in Asia he was fighting the good fight for the American Consumer against COLORED TOILET PAPER!
Pa-freakin-thetic.
And just evil as f to be invested in Cluster Bombs.
Thank you, RichM, for your reasoned and logical comments. MikeS doesn't really want a plan. He posted the same thing on another article and I tried to answer, but he ignored it.
I think that we should work towards what people have dreamed about since the invention of machines that made life easier. There was a choice, from the very beginning.
Do we use labor saving machines to lessen the hours of labor, or to throw people out of work in order to create more profit for the few?
Do we divide the work that needs to be done among the people able to work, or do some work long hours, while others starve, or languish on welfare?
Someone pointed out that Americans agree with "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Well, it just makes sense!
This is a crazy system, where so many are unemployed, and so many are employed in destructive, useless or vicious jobs, and the very rich wallow in luxury, while some live in cardboard boxes.
Let's figure out what we need, and how to divide up the work so that we can provide a decent, sustainable life for all, with no one sucking profits out of other people's labor, or from the earth's finite resources.
Lisa~
Too bad you didn't get your Gore/Lieberman ticket, we'd all be in tall cotton right now...and some other stuff too....
Yes Rich, even a marriage can be a lesser-evil choice, as many people would rather choose the lesser-evil of staying in a bad one, than paying the price to get out of it. And as for jobs, well, you can choose the lesser-evil of selling cheap shoes made in foreign sweat shops, or selling Adjustable-Rate-Mortgages to people you know can't afford them, or selling anuities to senior citizens. You can choose to eat eggs from Free-Range chickens, or you can eat Tyson chicken. BTW, you can feel free to tell me to STFU, whenever you want, as I'm not so thin-skinned that I take it personally!
I need to correct a statement I made above. Men were working on a plan to end slavery from its inception and it didn't end in this country until the 1950s or 60s and it took a long hard effort to end physical slavery.
Now the task is to end mental slavery.It will be difficult, but it is doable.
"If men seek to be both ignorant and free they seek what never was and never will be."
Thomas Jefferson
MikeBinSC July 21st, 2008 1:21 am
I see that not one DPA (Dem Party apologist) can answer my questions without a side-step and weasel. No surprise there. None.
When one does then I'll answer the question about what should be done which will not require any effort.
Lisa,
Until recently, most of Obama's investments was tied up with conservative mutual funds. Obama also has stock with Skyterra Communications and AVI Biopharma, both happen to get a lot of money from a source Obama should be familiar with: the federal government.
Skyterra Communications and AVI Biopharma, aside from sharing the same deep-pocketed benefactor, the two have one more thing in common. They both provide services in an area that has become a hot-button issue on Capitol Hill and with the electorate: homeland security.
Lisa are you ok with Obama's homeland security investments but not ok with Ralph's having Raytheon stock?
Is there a conflict of interest there for Obama?
Greenerthanthou, there was nothing resembling logic nor reason in RichM's comment, yours either for that matter, and if you have A PLAN, post it here so we can all see it! You're getting as bad as "I posted it on another thread" tailcap! SHOW ME THE PLAN!!
Lisa,
Is there a conflict of interest there for Obama? You claim Ralph is responsible for Raytheon manufacturing cluster bombs. Is it okay to pin any and all inappropriate activities and purchases made by Homeland Security on Obama because of his stocks as a kind of tit for tat?
Is there a conflict of interest there for Obama? Is Obama better than Ralph because his investment are with companies that eat at the government's Homeland Security trough instead of the MIC trough?
MikeBinSC July 21st, 2008 1:39 am
Answer my questions you weak fool!
Explain why Democrats:
1) Refuse to stop funding the war
2) Refuse to impeach Bush
3) Refuse to hold Bush accountable for torturing
4) Allow right-wingers like Mukasey and others to be confirmed
5) Confirmed right-wingers into the Supreme Court
6) Rubber stamp gargantuan military budgets
7) Allow Bush to spew 935 lies about the war
8) Allow Cheny to out CIA agents and defy subpoenas
9) Granted Bush and the Telecoms immunity
10) Insert your favorite Democratic Party capitulation here
I am waiting..............................................
Tailcap, I think that the Obama/Nader thing is a lesser of two evils choice, and I'm sure that as virtuous as you are, you won't vote for either of them, RIGHT?
Who's that I see, Howard Dean? Is that a Democrats weak-ass war face against 3rd parties but nothing but capitulation after capitulation against Repugs!
ANSWER THE QUESTIONS OR SHUT UP!
Tailcap, "weak fool", now that is some scary shit!
Tailcap, I may have to call in RichM to find out if you are abusing me.
See Mike you got no answers. You got nothing. Just weakness against Repugs but ready to come out swingin against anyone dares to question the stranglehold of your Democratic-Republicans.
You are a serious waste of time and a pathetic DPA. But I will go ahead and answer your question in spite of the fact you can't answer mine.
We start by no longer voting for sold-out Democratic-Republicans. Next we vote for a good progressive 3rd party like the Greens in the hopes that we can get 5% to qualify for matching funds. Then we continue building the party after the elections in the hope that we can convince more DPAs to vote for Greens. Maybe in four years we can get 10-15%. And on and on... Get it?
What weird is that I have read several of your posts where you said almost the exact same thing. The difference between is is that you are willing to vote for a sold out party NOW and I am not going to vote for traitors period-ever.
Why are they traitors? They are traitors because:
1) They are for war.
2) They allow Bush to get away with murder and protect him from impeachment
3) The FISA sell out and allowing Repugs to trample the Constitution
This is just the tip of the ice berg. I know that these things are not that important to DPAs but they are to us. Get it?
You didn't answer the question tailcap. Do I need to repeat it for you to understand it?
Thanks for clearing that up Rich. Tailcap will it help if I ask the question a g a i n s l o w e r?
What is it you want to know?
How about you answer mine now Mr. MikeBINSC?
You didn't like my answer but I gave it. Now if you have any integrity you will answer mine. If not then you will have confirmed what I that would happen it I answered your first and confirmed what I think about you.
One more time tailcap -
How is voting for Nader or any other third party candidate with no chance to win, going to make America, or the world, a safer, more progressive, better place in which to live?
Lisa,
Turns out Ralph has money in a fund that controls stock in questionable investments. I have a 403k for my retirement with this Legend Group that in turn buys Oppenheimer funds and bonds etc. All I get are statements that give me an acct.# and a general description but I am not really sure where the money is and with who. I guess if I indirectly owned McDonalds' stock and didn't even know it, I would be guilty in your eyes of making kids obese, spreading heart disease, shortening children's life spans, deforesting the Amazon rainforestwhere they graze the cattle and contributing to global warming. In other words, I would be a monster!
On balance, I would still argue that on what I consider to be the most important issue of all, the warmongering that kills people directly unlike the greasy burgers, and super inflated military spending which Obama is a cheerleader for and which starves domestic programs that help people, Ralph is way preferable and at least he would end the war-NOW!
I'm voting for Cynthia McKinney, maybe you can dig up some dirt on her too.
Lisa,
What I find amusing about your Nader rants is that you paint yourself as some kind of barefooted hippy, living in a cave with no electricity and no coffee, angrily picking at the specks in the eyes of our most progressive candidates like Nader, while being completely oblivious the the humongous beam jetting out from the eye of your chosen candidate, the establishment's very own pro-corportist, pro-war, pro-status quo, pro-FISA capitulator, SOB Obama.
Sorry, it's hard to imagine the image of a no-nonsense, anti-establishment, flower-child radical sporting an Obama sticker on her bicycle. And that's the truth.
Tailcap, don't strain your brain trying to answer the question, because the only honest answer is that voting for Nader or any other third party candidate with no chance to win, IS NOT going to make America, or the world, a safer, more progressive, better place in which to live.
MikeBinSC July 21st, 2008 2:16 am
One more time tailcap - Still going around in circles...enough@!
Mike my dad (RIP) used to ask me, "What do you get if you put a wise man in a room full of idiots?"
-answer: "A room full of idiots."
Sorry Mike, you are definitely a very serious waste of perfectly good time. Remind me to never waste a moment of my time on your stupidity again. Have an excellent evening and good luck with your pathetic, despicable, traitorous, sold out Democrats that can all go to hell as far as I am concerned- Adios.
ps Don't worry about people like me Mike, we are a small minority, most Americans think like you. Go Obama or Go McCain! Good luck.
Nader took money from the Republican Party. Nader endorsed John Edwards, a Demoncrat. Tailcap, you're copping out and voting for the lesser of three evils, but your vote sticks the rest of us with the worst of the three.
So tailcap, are you saying that I should just give up and leave this place to the idiots?
Trust me Tailcap, I won't spend any time worrying about you, as people like you always end up standing on someone elses shoulders or back, to get out of the burning building.
Good night!
Hello!
On the headline story,
"Iraqi Leader: US Should Leave," post at 1:14, I issued an invitation for commondreamers to assemble at this year's annual School of Americas Watch, scheduled for November 21-23, at Fort Benning/ Columbus, Georgia. Contact www.soaw.org.
I attended once, in 2003, and I look forwad to attending this year.
Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich, Pete Seeger, are three who have attended past rallies and I would say it is likely they would attend this year's.
20000 is a sizeable number, there should be 200,000 attending this for we the people to insist on change!
Two weeks after the election, this is a good place for Greens and Green Democrats to unite and build for the future!
Bill in Dubuque
Yawwwn, burp, fart.....
Without question, Joe was in
a different convention than
the one Ronnie Cummins reported
on. Dare I say, slavishly blind
impotent liberal parallel universe?
Hmmm, yes I will.
Sincerely, Dwayne Chandler.
MikeBinSC - "How is voting for Nader or any other third party candidate with no chance to win, going to make America, or the world, a safer, more progressive, better place in which to live?"
How has voting for Democrats over the last 12 years made this country or the world *a safer, more progressive, better place in which to live?* Not only have the *centrist* Democrats failed to provide any leadership, they have - either through inaction or outright complicity - also gone along with virtually every aspect of the GOP agenda. Let's face it, putting Democrats in office is political suicide for the left, and really for anyone who opposes the GOP agenda.
Of course if you vote for Nader or some other *unelectable* candidate, you will immediately be accused of supporting Republicans, which is precisely why I am voting for McCain. I figure if leftists are going to be bashed anyway, they might as well burn the Democrats as best they can, which of course means voting for Republicans. More importantly, since it's obvious we're going to fall into depression and/or world war during the next Presidency, it will be better if a Republican is in charge when the inevitable disaster comes. That way, at least we will have the possibility that an FDR or RFK figure will come along and offer a real alternative to the GOP. Obviously if put a Republicrat like Obama in office, nothing will change, the disaster will come anyway, and the Democrats will wind up being *Carterized* again.
"impotent liberal parallel universe"
You got that reversed. Conservatives are greedy, uptight anal retentives who make lousy, inconsiderate lovers that try to compensate by dictating to women what to do with their bodies.
21. To find out how many regressive, reactionary Republican shills the RNC can buy with 400 million dollars (and counting), entice them to crawl out from under their rocks where they lurk to post anti-Obama stuff favoring fascist McPain and death, torture and the gnashing of teeth for the sake of "principle" (and criminal loot), just post something favorable to Obama.
RichM July 21st, 2008 11:14 am
Can you believe the weakness, impotence and complete lack of integrity of DPAs (Dem Pastry apologists) who claim that if you answer their questions then they will answer yours and when you do, they proceed to do the DPA-side-step-weasel and say, "Your answer isn't good enough." They never answer my questions because they simply do not know how and therefore can't.
They just want to play childish mind-games because it is extremely difficult to figure out a rational argument that can excuse and justify Democrats that won't get you laughed out of the park. To be fair, they aren't really that stupid.
Therefore, they cowardly weasel out of the unpleasant task of explaining why the Democrats are justified in allowing the Republicans to crap over them and the Constitution, and ask everyone to vote for them anyway. Like we are stupid.
It's a tactic my 15 yr. tries to pull all the time. You tell him to pick up his clothes and he proceeds to change the subject to something that his sister didn't do that she supposedly got away with. Seeing through the red herring of course, I sternly tell him, "This is not about your sister, boy. Now get to it!"
"....Emily Zanotti, online community manager for the Sam Adams Alliance (samadamsalliance.org), a conservative online outfit that focuses on government transparency."
(They're kidding, right????)
"The progressive online movement is now faced with its most significant challenge: using its online power to help elect a Democratic president."
Why would any TRUE progressive waste their time with the Democratic party? They're far from progressive. Hello? Progressives? Find a candidate that shares your values and vote for them! That is NOT the democrats!
"How is voting for Nader or any other third party candidate with no chance to win"
MAYBE, just maybe, if everyone who was tempted to vote for a 3rd party candidate, actually DID without assholes ramming down their throats "Wasted Vote, Can't Win, etc...), the 3rd party candidate might actually win? It's like a self-fulfilling prophesy... MOST countries that claim to be a democracy, have more than 2 parties. What you people call democracy, isn't.
Sorry, but it's just a pipe dream to think a 100% Progressive can ever garner enough votes in this country to win......taking over existing parties is the ONLY WAY change can happen!!! When the media is controlled LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL, you can't get your voice heard!! End of story!